A stent is a medical device introduced to a body lumen and is well known in the art. Typically, a stent is implanted in a blood vessel at the site of a stenosis or aneurysm endoluminally, i.e. by so-called “minimally invasive techniques” in which the stent in a radially reduced configuration, optionally restrained in a radially compressed configuration by a sheath and/or catheter, is delivered by a stent delivery system or “introducer” to the site where it is required. The introducer may enter the body from an access location outside the body, such as through the patient's skin, or by a “cut down” technique in which the entry blood vessel is exposed by minor surgical means.
Stents and similar devices such as grafts, stent-grafts, expandable frameworks, and similar implantable medical devices, are radially expandable endoprostheses that are typically intravascular implants capable of being implanted transluminally and enlarged radially after being introduced percutaneously. Stents may be implanted in a variety of body lumens or vessels such as within the vascular system, urinary tracts, bile ducts, fallopian tubes, coronary vessels, secondary vessels, etc. Stents may be used to reinforce body vessels and to prevent restenosis following angioplasty in the vascular system. They may be self-expanding, expanded by an internal radial force, such as when mounted on a balloon, or a combination of self-expanding and balloon expandable (hybrid expandable).
Stents may be created by methods including cutting or etching a design from a tubular stock, from a flat sheet which is cut or etched and which is subsequently rolled or from one or more interwoven wires or braids.
Stents, such as self-expanding stents, can be loaded into delivery catheters by pushing the stent through a funnel, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,718, or by pushing a crimped stent out of a crimping device, for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,577, and into a catheter. The disclosures of U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,718 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,577 are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
In some embodiments, stents may include coatings, such as lubricious coatings and/or drug coatings. The presence of a coating may complicate procedures for reducing the size of a stent and loading the stent into a delivery system, especially when the stent is relatively long and/or when the stent is self-expanding. Sliding friction between the crimping device and the stent or coating may cause damage to the stent, coating and/or the crimping device.
There remains a need for inventive methods and devices for loading stents into a stent delivery system.
The art referred to and/or described above is not intended to constitute an admission that any patent, publication or other information referred to herein is “prior art” with respect to this invention. In addition, this section should not be construed to mean that a search has been made or that no other pertinent information as defined in 37 C.F.R. §1.56(a) exists.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well only for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72. The abstract is not intended to be used for interpreting the scope of the claims.